Railway-car.



B. W. KADEL & I. A. PILCHER.

RAILWAY CAR.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 9. Ism.

1,268,725. Patented June 4,1918..

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BYENsW. EL, `orNoANolKr. COUNTY, AND JOHN A ritenne, or aoANom, vmeINm. v

RAILWAY-CA.`R.

Specicationfof Letters fatent.

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Application filed May 9, 1917. Serial N o. 167,598.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it lmown that'we, BYERS W. KABEL and JOHN A. PncoHnR, citizens of the United States, residing, respectively, inthe county of Roanoke and in the city of Roanoke, State of Virginia, have invented certain new 'and useful Improvements in RailwayCars, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has to do with railway cars of the drop bottom or hopper bottom type, and its particular object is to provide an improved -arrangement of door parts and improvements in door securing mechanisms.'-

With these general objects and other incidental ones in view the invention consists of the formation, combinationand arrangement of parts as will be herein described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a portion of a car having an embodiment of our invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a broken end elevational view of the same. Fig. 3 is an inverted plan view showing the bottom of the doors of Figs. l and 2. Fig. 4 is an enlarged side elevational view of the door securing mechanism, and Fig. 5, a similar end elevational view of the same, a portion of the car body being shownin cross section in this ligure. Fi 6 isla horizontal sectional 4view taken t rough the pivots of the hook and cam and substantially on the line 6 6 'of Fig. 4. p

Referring now to these drawings, the car body is represented as having sides 1 and a bottom 2. In the bottom of the car is a door Vopenin and to close the same a pair of transverse y-disposed, hinged doors 3 are provided. These doors are located with thelr f ree edges adjacent each other and wlth pintles 4 disposed transversely of the l car and along their remote edges andare closed position. Each door embodies a doorplate which has secured along its free face a stiflening memprojects beyond t e ends of the door plate and beyond the lines of the car sides so as to form convenient vprojections to be engaged by the dor'hooks 6 when the door i is in closed position. These hooks are pivoted at 7 to each of the car sides and swing parallel with the side'of the car to reduce the road clearance necessary. The hooks for a pair of doors are turned to swing toward the free edges of the doors, in opposite directions, and toward each other to engage' the doors, and the hooks 'are pivoted with -respect to their centers of gravity so that they will fall by gravity into engagingpositions.

The angle irons 5 are attached to the door plates with their fiat legs beneath the plates and with their outstandin legs nearest-the free edges of the doors an the hooks swing into engaging osition toward each other beneath the flat egs of the angles and toward Y i `of the locking faces, will intersect the ocking faces. With these faces so'disposed the l tendency is for the door to remaln closed. And the stem 9 of the hookvextends in a path at an acute angle with the plane B-B of the locking faces to clear' the angle 5 and to assure the hookalways dropping into engaging position. The center of pressure between the door and the hook is 'so disposed that, vtogether with the formation of the parts as already described, the force will always tend to swing the hooks into engaged position rather than to release the doors.

A gravity eccentric cam 10 is supplied for each hook, these being pivoted to the car side at 11. A housing or bracket 12 is also supplied to embrace these two pivot oints and to cover and tie together and race the'hook and cam. Thisl bracket 12 has three holes disposed in triangular arf y rangement, the two upper ones being coinadapted to swing toward each other into cident with the pivot points 7 and 11 and the third one, designated 13 being attached directly to the car .body for stiffness. This bracket embodies a plate portion 14 which overlies the hook and cam and prevents them from swinging out o f line. It also has hubs at the points- 7, 11 and 13 which bear against the side of the car and are of slightly greater length than the thickness of the cam or the hook.` Securing rivets ass through suitable openings in t ese hu s and through` coalining holes in the car sides.` The pivotholes in the hook and the cam are ofsuch size as to lit loosely over these lhubs so that the two upper hubs of the bracket 12 form the pintles forthe hook and cam. The

In order that the cam l0 may not drop out of position when the car is turned upside down in a modern car dumper, a coil springA is inserted between the plate of thel bracket 12 and the cam, holding the cam endwise against the car and'causing enough friction to retain it against falling out of its own weight.

Any convenient arrangement may be used for raising the doors into closed position but we preferably omit the customary winding arrangement and lift the doors by hand. In order that a door may be readily grasped by a man standing at the side of the car there is supplied to the under face of the door means such as the bracket 16 for the retention of the end of a removable bar such as the Wrench 17 shown in the drawings. By allowing such bar to bear against any convenient part of the door edge, the end projecting well out beyond the face of the car forms a lever and the door may be readily raised into latched position. Such a bar or a wrench or the like is always available.

Thus we have produced a car door device `that offers an exceptionally free outlet for.

the contents of the car; that is light in weight and economical in construction; that can never stand partly open to allow loss of lading; that cannot accidentally `become open while en route; that is easily and quickly manipulated and without special wrenches or tools; and the mechanism also takes up less space and allows a consequent increase in the size and capacity of the car.

And having thus described an embodiment of our invention, what we now claim is:

1. vA railway car having a pair of adjacent hinged doors disposed with their pintles along their remote edges and adapted to swing toward each other into closed position, projections on the doors and hooks pivoted on the car and adapted to engage the said projections, the hooks being turned in opposite directions and each hook being pivoted in such manner as to swing by gravity into engaged position, said hooks heilig disposed so as to swing toward the pintles of their respective doors for disengagement with the projections.

2. A railway car having sides and a hinged door, said door extending transversely of the car from one side to the other, hooks pivoted to the sides of the car and adapted to engage the said door when the latter is drawn into closed position, said hooks being so formed and disposed as to fall by gravity into engaging position and to be swung toward the reinforcing angle iron secured along its free edge, the angle iron extending beyond the ends of the door plate, hooks pivoted tothe ,car and adapted to engage the projecting ends of the said angle iron when the door is in closed position, the said hooks being formed and disposed to seat beneath the flat leg of the angle iron and in a direction toward the outstanding leg thereof.

4. A railway car having a hinged door, a flat locking face on said door, a hook pivoted to thesaid car and having a locking face formed to engage and conform to the locking face on the said door, the pivot point of the said hook being so disposed that a plane through the aXis thereof and erected normal to the plane of the locking faces will intersect the said locking faces, the stem of the said hook extending in a pat-h at an acute angle with the plane of the locking faces.

5. A railway car having a movable door, a hook pivoted to the car and adapted to engage said door and to hold the same in closed position, a cam also pivoted to the car and adapted to hold the said hook in engaged relationship with the door, and abracket having three holes therein, the same being aiiixed to the said car and embracing the said hook and the cam, two of the holes thereof being coincident with the pivot points of the said hook and cam, the said bracket being ailxed to the car at all of th said holes thereof.

6. A railway car having a movable door, a hook pivoted to the car and adapted to engage said door and to hold the same in closed position, a cam also pivoted to the car and adapted to hold the said hook in enga ged relationship with the door, a plate overlying the said hook and the cam and axed to the car at the pivot points thereof and at another point removed from the said pivot points, the said plate being formed and disposed to guide and restrain the said hook.

7. A railway car having a movable door, a hook pivoted tothe car and adapted to engage said door and to hold the same in closed position, a cam also pivoted to the car and adapted to hold the said hook in engaged relationshi with the door, a triangularly-shaped p ate overlying the said hook and the cam and affixed to the car at points in each of the three corners thereof, the aiixing means at'two of said points forming pintles for the said hook and cam and the securing means at the third point forming a stop for said hook, the said plate being so formed and disposed as to guide and restrain the said hook.

8. A railway car having a body and a movable door, a hook pivoted to the car body and adapted to engage said door and to hold. the `saine in closed position, a cam also pivoted to the car body and adapted to hold said hook in engaged relationship with the door, a plate overlying the said hook and the cam and attached to the car body at the said pivot points thereof,the said plate having pierced bosses on its inner face of greater length than the thickness of the hook-and cam and the hook and cam being provided with openings to rotatably embrace the said bosses, there being securing' means passing through the said holes in the plate and attaching the same to the car body, the inner ends ofthe bosses abutting the car body and the said hook and cam being disposed between'the plate and the car body.

9. A railway car having a body and a movable door, a hook pivoted to the carbody and adapted to engage said door and to hold the same in closed position, a cam also pivoted to the car body and adapted to hold said hook in engaged relationship with the door, and a spring adapted to hold the said cam against said hook.

l0. A railway car having a body and a movable door, a hook pivoted to the car body and adapted to engage said door and to hold the same in closed position, a cam also pivoted to the car body and adapted to hold said hook in engaged relationship with the door, the said cam being so formed and disposed as to tend to seat against the hook by vvirtue of its own weight, and a spring acting against said cam in a direction parallel with the axis of the pivot thereof, and adapted to :torce the said cam into frictional engagement with a portion of the car.

11. A railway car having sides and a hinged door extendingtransversely of the car from one side to the other, hooks ivoted to the car and adapted to engage t e said door' when the latter is drawn into closed position, and means for closing the door, said means embodying a lever extending outside of the line of one of the car sides and removabl attached to the door, and means on the oor for the removable attachment thereto of the lever.

In testimony whereof we ax our signatures.

BYERS W. KADEL. JOHN A. PlLCl-IER. 

